The only movie reviews you need

Friday, December 30, 2016

The
subject of my final review of 2016 also happens to be the best of the 65 movies
I’ve seen in theaters this year, Damien Chazelle’s reverently crafted and wondrously
exuberant musical love letter to the City of Angels, Golden Age “CinemaScope” musicals (RIP, Debbie),
classical jazz and lost love told through the eyes of two young
lovebirds struggling to realize their dreams in modern-day Los Angeles. With ‘La La Land' the immensely talented Harvard
man Chazelle, who previously directed and wrote the Oscar darling ‘Whiplash,’ single-handedly
rejuvenated the movie musical and gave us the perfect feel-good movie in which
to surrender ourselves.

Ryan
Gosling and Emma Stone (the adorably cute couple from ‘Crazy, Stupid, Love’)
are reunited on-screen as two idealistic twentysomethings pursuing their flights
of fancy.Sebastian is a talented pianist
who aims to keep the torch of traditional improvisational jazz (not the
new age elevator "smooth jazz" of Kenny G, that's Keith played by John Legend) burning and to save enough money for his own jazz club someday,
while Mia is a lover of classic TCM movies and dreams of becoming an actress and
playwright.The two cross path by
chance and, despite their initial feigned indifference and nonchalance toward
each other, soon fall madly in love.While the story is a familiar one, we
can’t help but be swept along by their blossoming romance and eventual drifting
apart through the four seasons on the strengths of the performances and chemistry
between the two engaging leads.The
always endearing Emma Stone had never shone brighter and is an utter delight to watch, proving once again why I've been a fan since first seeing her in 'Zombieland' and 'Easy A.' Just listen to her half of the wistful ditty below:

Evoking the kind of movie magic all too rare these days, ‘La La Land’ is an exercise in pure whimsical
fantasy but is also irresistibly charming and sweet.The original songs and musical score from composer Justin Hurwitz and the dance
numbers by choreographer (not to be confused with the singer) Mandy Moore are Oscar-caliber, eliciting feelings from joy to melancholy, and the film's
bittersweet “what might have been" epilogue is a sublime masterpiece of such heart-wrenching beauty and tenderness that only elevated its poignancy and resonance.Light on its feet but heavy on our hearts, 'La La Land’ is a stunning cinematic musical
tour de force that appeals to the hopeless romantic in all of us and makes our
hearts swoon.Now that's
entertainment!Have a safe and happy new
year, my friends.

Monday, December 19, 2016

RIP, Carrie. Thanks for playing "Beauty" to the Beast and being the best. slave. ever.

‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ is
Disney’s first stand-alone movie set in the popular Star Wars universe, a
spin-off rather than a numbered installment in the Star Wars film
franchise.Directed by British helmer
Gareth Edwards (‘Monsters,’ ‘Godzilla 2014’), it was made clear from the very
outset that R1 is going be a darker, grittier Star Wars movie that promises to
put the “war” in Star Wars.Edwards even
went so far as to say that it’s inspired by one of the best WWII movies of all
time, Steven Spielberg’s ‘Saving Private Ryan’ which, by the way, should have
won Best Picture instead of ‘Shakespeare in Love’ in 1999.

Unless you’re ignorant about everything Star Wars, it would be no spoiler for me to tell you that R1 is a prequel to
Episode 4 (aka ‘A New Hope’), about a ragtag group of rebels who successfully
stole the plans of the Death Star which Luke Skywalker destroyed in his X-Wing
starfighter in Episode 4.This “Dirty Half
Dozen” includes Jyn Erso (Felicity Jones), the daughter of the scientist forced
to build the planet-destroying superweapon; Cassian Andor (Diego Luna), a Rebel
Alliance intelligence operative; Chirrut Ĭmwe (Donnie Yen, Chinese #1), a blind
warrior monk who thinks that “The Force is with him and he’s one with The
Force”; Baze Malbus (Jiang Wen, Chinese #2), a Boba
Fett-like bounty hunter and friend of Ĭmwe; Bodhi Rook, an Imperial
pilot-turned-rebel and K-2SO (voiced by Alan Tudyk), an Imperial enforcer droid reprogrammed to serve the rebel cause (think of "him" as a more kick-ass or less wimpy version of C-3PO). How do you think Luke and his Red Squadron knew where
the critical flaw/weakness of the Death Star is?Thanks to the one-way suicide mission these
brave misfits undertook, that’s how!

R1 is the Star Wars movie we’ve
all been waiting for, providing us with a tale of heroism and sacrifice from the
grunt’s POV as well as the space-spanning galactic battles we've come to expect
while keeping the overall tone of the movie light enough for a Disney picture.The
realism and immediacy of the pitched laser gunfights have come a long way from its
humble beginnings in the original trilogy, and Storm Troopers actually displayed
"proper tactics" and behaved in a way that’s semi believable even if their marksmanship still leaves a lot to be desired.What I like the most about R1 is that it maintained
the dusty “space western” feel of the original trilogy; the rebels are all dirty-grungy looking like
desperados and wearing their gun belts loose.All that’s missing are cowboy hats.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

The new movie from fashion
designer-cum-director Tom Ford, ‘Nocturnal Animals,’ is a weirdly compelling
art-house gemwhich defies convention
and description.Not having seen his
directorial debut from 2009, the critically acclaimed ‘A Single Man,’ I
probably wouldn’t even have sought out his latest release if not for the fact
that a friend mentioned it to me.Thanks, Penny!

The narrative structure of
‘Nocturnal Animals’ involves two parallel stories.One is set in the present and follows art
gallery owner Susan Morrow (Amy Adams), who’s trapped in an unhappy marriage
with an unfaithful husband. One day she receives
the manuscript of a novel (dedicated to her) entitled ‘Nocturnal Animals’ from
her ex-husband, whom she left on bad terms some years ago, and finds herself
increasingly engrossed in it.The other story is the one
told in the novel itself, a tale of obsession and vengeance that was set into motion when a teacher's road trip through West Texas with his wife (Isla Fisher, who kinda looks like Amy Adams!) and teenage daughter turned into a hellish living nightmare.The two
otherwise unrelated stories are told in alternating fashion and are tied
together by Jake Gyllenhaal, who played both the protagonist (teacher) in the novel and Susan’s real life ex-husband
shown in a series of flashbacks, which gave me the unsettling impression that the
events which unfolded in the novel are real. Alas, it is an allegory of the death of true love.

Billed as a “neo-noir
psychological thriller,” ‘Nocturnal Animals’ is a boldly provocative film
that’s unafraid to go where few other movies would dare.From its shocking and disturbing opening scene featuring plus-sized burlesque strippers to its final act,
‘Nocturnal Animals’ never ceases to surprise (though not always pleasantly) and manages to hold us spellbound even as
it repulses us in its surreal excess and nihilistic violence.

It’s ‘Mr. & Mrs. Smith’ versus
Nazis with ‘Casablanca’ as the backdrop in Robert Zemeckis’s sizzling World War II spy actioner/romance
‘Allied.’The accomplished and
accessible director of such films as‘Back to the Future,’ ‘Forrest Gump’ and ‘Castaway’ is no stranger to
pairing flirtatious male and female leads, with 1984’s ‘Romancing the Stone’
starring Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner among his directorial credits.

Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard play dashing Canadian
commando Max Vatan and sultry French Resistance fighter Marianne
Beausejour, rendezvousing in Casablanca and posing as French socialites on a daring
mission to assassinate the German ambassador to Morocco at a high profile Nazi
party.Their mission goes without a
hitch and their budding romance soon blossoms into marriage after they returned
to London, but things get a bit, ah, more complicated when Marianne is
suspected of being a Nazi spy by British intelligence.How can this be?Please say it isn't so!

‘Allied’ is an action-packed and
suspenseful thriller anchored by its two strong leads. The cinematography and
period flavor evoke nostalgia and remind us of ‘Casablanca,’ which undoubtedly is its intent.It is
also surprisingly sexy.There is one memorable
scene inside an automobile where the raw passion and desire between Max and Marianne build up with increasing urgency, before reaching a crescendo in tune with a raging sandstorm
outside.No wonder Brangelina broke up.Just kidding.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Hollywood loves alien movies, be
it the apocalyptic mayhem of a full blown invasion from outer space or the idea
that aliens are harmless and virtually everything in between. From ‘War of the Worlds’ to ‘Invasion of the
Body Snatchers’ to ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ aliens have been
portrayed as brutal conquerors to sinister infiltrators
to benevolent beings who just needed our help to go home (not just ‘ET’ but
‘Starman’ and ‘Paul’).Just when you
think you’ve seen them all, along comes ‘Arrival,’ French-Canadian auteur Denis
Villeneuve’s fascinating and rather introspective look at how we might realistically
react and behave in a “First Contact” scenario.

Based on Ted Chiang’s Nebula
Award-winning novella “Story of Your Life,” ‘Arrival’ centers on linguistic
professor Dr. Louise Banks’ (Amy Adams) attempt to communicate with “Abbot” and
“Costello,” two Heptapod alien creatures whose highly advanced giant elliptical
spaceship hovered above the plains of Montana.Along with theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), she was
tasked by the US government to determine what the aliens want.The
simplicity of the question belies its very complexity in execution, as Louise
and Ian try to decipher the aliens’ highly complex and enigmatic written
language and come up with a way to effectively communicate with them.

If you’re expecting the typical
dumbed-down alien fare we’ve seen all too often from Hollywood, you will no
doubt be disappointed.Quiet and
poignant in tone, ‘Arrival’ is a hard sci-fi film that’s cerebral and deep,
delving not only into the scientific but also the metaphysical.Like 1997’s ‘Contact,’ ‘Arrival’ seeks to
answer some of our most pressing questions through the personal experience and
journey of its main protagonist as opposed to simply provide mindless
entertainment.Grade: A

Monday, November 7, 2016

For whatever reasons, World War
II movies on ground combat in the Pacific Theater lag well behind their ETO (European
Theater of Operations) counterparts in popularity and impact.There were a couple of early notable ones to be
sure, like ‘The Sands of Iwo Jima’ and ‘Halls of
Montezuma,’ but it wasn’t until Clint Eastwood’s ‘Letters from Iwo Jima’ in
2006 that managed to give audiences something good after such misfires as
‘Windtalkers’ and ‘The Thin Red Line.’However, that film told the story strictly from the Japanese perspective.

Mel Gibson’s latest directorial
feature, a remarkable and faithful (in more ways than one) biopic on the life
of Private First Class Desmond T. Doss, finally gave us a “grunt movie” set in
the island-hopping campaign of the Pacific worth gushing about.You may have seen the trailer of ‘Hacksaw
Ridge’ but are debating whether to see the movie or not because you suspect
Gibson may have gone cuckoo for cocoa puffs.
I don't blame you because that too has crossed my mind. But let me assure you that he is back in top form and ‘Hacksaw Ridge’
represents his best directorial effort since ‘Apocalypto’ and perhaps even ‘Braveheart.’Imparting Doss with a certain small town country
boy charm, Andrew Garfield delivered his best performance yet as the medic
who was awarded a Medal of Honor for saving numerous lives during the pivotal
battle on Okinawa despite being labeled a coward because he refused to carry a weapon into battle.Hugo Weaving and Rachel Griffiths were also great as Doss’s deeply
religious but dysfunctional parents, but my favorite character in the movie is
arguably Sergeant Howell (Vince Vaughn), whose most memorable contribution in
the movie isn’t training the raw recruits or even leading them into battle himself but
making us laugh our asses off.

‘Hacksaw Ridge’ doesn’t sugarcoat
the horrors of war or pull any punches in its depiction of war as a brutal and gory
hell-on-earth, but as a biopic it is a powerful and inspirational portrait of courage
under fire and selfless sacrifice as well as the convictions of one's
deeply held religious beliefs.Hallelujah, the “lesser”
theater has finally found its own ‘Saving Private Ryan.’Grade: A

The latest film from Phase 3 of the
Marvel Cinematic Universe is a bit “strange.”I have to admit, Doctor Strange is one of those characters from Marvel
who isn’t familiar to me because I’ve never read his comics in my youth other
than maybe a couple of cross-overs.Not
that I dislike him or anything; it’s just that there are so many superheroes
and characters in the Marvel and DC universes that I simply don’t have the time
to cover them all even if I had the allowance to buy every comic book of every
title.

In a way this is refreshing
because, as in the case of ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,’ I don’t have to wait
impatiently for the familiar obligatory origin story to be told, in
this instance that of a brilliant but egotistical neurosurgeon played by Benedict
Cumberbatch who’s vain (not stupid) enough to attempt multi-tasking with a
tablet while driving his speeding sports car in the rain on a slippery mountain highway,
which proved to be a fatal mistake and his undoing as a surgeon.The “unfortunate” accident also proved to be
fateful and maybe even fortuitous, however, as it placed him on a path to enlightenment
and becoming part of a group of mystical warriors entasked with protecting our
world against magical and mystical
threats, much like The Avengers protect earth against physical threats as the
first among them known as the “Ancient One” (Tilda Swinton) succinctly put it
during his orientation.

While it is derivative and
borrowed liberally from oriental Buddhist traditions and mysticism as well as the
good-pupil-turned-bad soap operatic tragedy of ‘Star Wars’ and other stories,
‘Doctor Strange’ nonetheless managed to be yet another solid addition to the MCU that is
mind-blowing, entertaining and smart.The reality-bending special effects (which is best viewed in IMAX
3-D) are reminiscent of ‘Inception’ with its topsy-turvy skylines but are fun to watch.My favorite scene is probably the one at the end of the movie when Doc Strange insists on striking a bargain with “Dormammu,” a
malevolent god-like being from the Dark Dimension, which serves as a perfect example of never-say-die (no pun intended) persistence.

Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Illegal immigrants crossing into
America get more than they bargained for in first-time director Jonás Cuarón’s
low-budget exploitation thriller ‘Desierto.’Co-produced by his famous director father Alfonso (‘Y Tu Mama Tambien,’ ‘Children
of Men,’ ‘Gravity’), its hot-button topic of Mexicans pouring across our
borders is not only timely and relevant but will undoubtedly provoke debate as
we approach the end of another election year.Trump may already have lost, but at least his supporters can indulge a
bit in this cinematic fantasy in pure homicidal excess.Note: I'm not one of them.

When a group of migrant workers
seeking to realize the "American Dream" of making a living outside of Home Depots in Los Estados Unidos
becomes stranded after their truck broke down in the middle of the Arizona
badlands, they find themselves terrorized and hunted by a text-book card-carrying,
rifle-toting NRA redneck named (Uncle?) Sam (played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan) and his ferocious hunting dog.As they are systematically picked off one by
one, auto mechanic Moises (Gael Garcia Bernal) must draw upon every ounce of his
reserves to survive and reunite with his familia.Can he do it, or will he become the latest
victim of El Gringo?

Lean, primal and visceral,
‘Desierto’ is gripping in its tension and tightly wound suspense even if its
plot is simplistic and its characterizations are thin.Morgan and Bernal are both believable in
their roles as the hunter and the hunted, and the film managed to keep us on
edge throughout its 90-minute or so running time.Make no mistake, ‘Desierto’ is a shameless
and exploitative B-movie taking advantage of a divisive political issue, but it
certainly isn’t alone in that regard.

Monday, October 24, 2016

Oscar winning director and DC
Extended Universe’s new Batman Ben Affleck wears a pocket protector and gives one of the world's most unglamorous
professions a dangerous (and sexy?) twist in director Gavin O’Connor’s ‘The
Accountant.’Just who is “The
Accountant,” you ask?Not simply a CPA who
can help with our taxes as J.K. Simmons’ director of financial crimes pointed
out in the movie’s trailer (a scene that was changed in the film unfortunately),
the mysterious and elusive Accountant is so much more: a forensic accountant with
a penchant for “following the money” and blowing the lids off financial cover-ups who’s also a
deadly “don’t mess with me” all-around badass. Of course, he had no choice if he were to keep "uncooking the books" of dangerous criminals and live.

Affleck is Christian Wolff, an
autistic math whiz who, along with his more normal little brother Brax, were
raised by their father after their mom left them.A psych-ops officer in the army, the father
raised his two boys with “tough love” so that they are prepared to survive no
matter what hardship.When Wolff’s
latest audit uncovered hidden accounting discrepancies at a cutting-edge robotics firm
owned by Lamar Blackburn (John Lithgow) whose stocks are about to go public, he
and the unwitting whistleblower played by Anna Kendrick found themselves marked for death. Those poor professional assassins.They had no idea who they’re up against.

Affleck delivered an understated
and nuanced performance as the man with many aliases, imparting ‘The
Accountant’ with humanity and depth despite his obvious lack of social
skills and stone cold façade.While the
movie's script defied belief and gave us a twist near the end that was a bit predictable,
'The Accountant' is nonetheless an entertaining popcorn action flick
and certified crowd-pleaser.

Thursday, October 13, 2016

British actress Emily Blunt’s
latest film is the mystery-suspense thriller ‘The Girl on the Train,’ adapted
from the bestselling novel by British author Paula Hawkins about the
disappearance of a young woman and the sole witness (Blunt) being the prime
suspect.The trailer of the movie looked
promising and reminded me of David Fincher’s ‘Gone Girl,’ which undoubtedly was
its very intent.

Blunt plays poor Rachel, a thirty-something
divorced woman with a lot of issues.Not
only is she infertile and a recovering alcoholic still suffering from the
lingering emotional and mental trauma of having been cheated on and tossed aside by her ex husband
(Justin Theroux), who fathered a baby with his new wife Anna (Rebecca Ferguson),
she’s also susceptible to disorienting blackouts which made her lose large chunks
of time that she can’t recall.Finding it hard to move on, Rachel frequently stalks her ex and his new wife from a distance,
once even entering their home without permission and taking their baby (left
alone for a minute) outside.When the
baby's independent young twenty-something nanny Megan (Haley Bennett),
who in turn was having an affair with the cheating husband (men!) behind Anna's back (what goes around comes around), disappears and
later turns up dead, Rachel becomes the chief “person of interest” in the subsequent investigation.As damaged and
baggage-laden as she may be, is Rachel truly capable of... murder?Inquiring minds would like to know.

Of course, if you’ve read the
book the movie would hold little suspense for you.Not having read it, I find TGOTT to be a
moderately suspenseful tale.While the movie
is uneven, slow at times, and resorts to flashbacks a lot, the central
storyline and individual performances did just enough to hold my interest throughout.Alas, ‘Gone Girl’ good this isn’t.Grade: B+

Tuesday, October 11, 2016

The British Petroleum oil rig
disaster which occurred over the course of April 20 to 22, 2010 off the coast of Louisiana is
the subject of Mark Wahlberg’s latest disaster flick.I remember watching news coverage of this
incident with equal parts fascination and horror as it unfolded, the worst man‑made
environmental disaster in US history surpassing even the Exxon Valdez oil
tanker spill.A tragedy of epic
proportions, 11 lives were lost and an estimated five million barrels of oil were spilled
into the pristine waters of the Gulf of Mexico by the time the blowout was
finally contained nearly three months later.

‘Deepwater Horizon’ is told
through the eyes of three key participants.Wahlberg plays Mike Williams, an electronic technician caught in the
maelstrom during that fateful night of April 20, as the shit hits the
proverbial fan despite earlier assurances from a BP exec (John Malkovich) that there
was nothing to worry about.Tragedies
often beget ironies, and in DH it was his boss and rig supervisor Jimmy Harrell
(Kurt Russell) being given a safety award mere hours before the explosion.The other key player in the film is Gina
Rodriguez’s Andrea Fleytas, a rig pilot working in what is essentially a man’s
world.

Director Peter Berg crafted a
near perfect disaster movie, imparting DH with the immediacy, chaos and sense
of impending doom that are at once riveting and yet deeply human.As he was in ‘The Perfect Storm,’ Wahlberg
is solid once again as the main protagonist, the eye of the storm in the midst of all
the confusion and chaos.Exciting,
compelling and utterly tragic, DH is worth a look not only for disaster movie
aficionados but also anyone who’s interested in this dark chapter of American
environmental history.Grade: A-

The latest YA novel to be adapted
into a movie is Ransom Riggs’ ‘Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children.’The adaptation, directed by Tim Burton and
starring French actress Eva Green in the role of the titular head mistress of a
creaky old Gothic boarding house on an island off the coast of Ireland, is as
oddly peculiar as its name would suggest.Best characterized as a dark fantasy/horror film for teenagers, the
movie features children possessing powers or unique characteristics including a
girl who’s lighter than air, a fire starter, an invisible boy, a creator/animator
of creepy objects, a girl with Popeye-like strength and another girl who has a
gaping maw filled with sharp teeth on the back of her head.Weird, huh?What sick and twisted mind thinks up of this stuff, Ransom Riggs?

Not having read the book, I
enjoyed MPHFPC more than I probably would have had I read it.The tale combines dark fantasy with gothic
elements and sci-fi; the whole conceit of the movie is that these people exist
in a time-loop that restarts every day right before a German bomber plane
destroys their home during WWII.Can you
imagine living the same day over and over, even if you try to live them
differently each time?Like clockwork,
Miss Peregrine winds her pocket watch back each day on the hour so that she and
her children can live on in blissful happiness forever. But there has to be more to the story, you say?It just so happens that Miss P and her
precious charges are pursued by the sinister Mr. Barron (Samuel L. Jackson) and his
cohort, immortal Wights with an army of giant stick-like ‘Hollows” who seek to
regain their human form by consuming the eyes of children, the more peculiar the better.

Refreshing and entertaining,
MPHFPC is also stylish and atmospheric as we would expect from a Tim Burton
film.If I have to characterize the
movie, I would say it has a decidedly creepy Lovecraftian eldritch vibe and
should appeal to those who like their
fantasies a bit off the beaten path by way of the twisted and the macabre.

Monday, September 26, 2016

Director Antoine Fuqua reunites
his ‘Training Day’ co-stars Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke in his
contemporary update of John Sturges’ 1960 western based on Akira Kurosawa’s
‘Seven Samurai.’This timeless story of a
few good men defending the weak from the predations of bad guys (standing up to bullies) never gets
old and Fuqua, a veteran of the action movie genre with such gritty R-rated flicks as ‘The
Equalizer,’ ‘Tears of the Sun,’ ‘Shooter’ and ‘Olympus has Fallen,’ is an
accomplished director uniquely qualified to tackle the remake of the beloved classic which
boasted Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson and James Coburn among its
ensemble cast.

While the setting and dramatis
personae are different, the tale is the same.The American mining town of Rose Creek, Minnesota is beset and terrorized by an evil
capitalist with the dastardly name of Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard) and his army of henchmen, who gave the
poor homesteaders the ultimatum to get out of town or else.After losing her brave but foolhardy husband when he resisted, frontierwoman Emma Cullen (Haley Bennett) appeals to renowned Wichita, Kansas bounty hunter Sam
Chisolm (Washington) for aid, who agrees to help and begins assembling his seven-man army. And what a ragtag and colorful bunch it
turned out to be.Criticism has been leveled at
the group's composition for its racial stereotypes and being too PC, since it not only includes a black man garbed in
black but also a Mexican bandito (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo), a redskin brave from the
Commanche tribe (Martin Sensmeier) and – I kid you not – a yellow man from the
east (Byung hun-Lee) who goes by the all-too-white moniker of Billy Rocks. Rounding out the group in the minority are three white men: Ethan Hawke’s tortured ex-Confederate sharpshooter
Goodnight Robicheaux, Chris Pratt’s easygoing hustler/gambler Josh Faraday and the Davy
Crokett-like almighty-fearing mountain man/trapper Jack Horne
(Vincent D’Onofrio).It’s a
transgression I am happy to overlook because watching these eclectic characters
with their unique personalities, fighting styles and weapons of choice is a
helluva lot more interesting than watching a bunch of white guys playing
cowboy, historical likelihood be damned.

Although Fuqua dialed down the graphic violence
a bit to attain the movie’s PG-13 rating, there is no shortage of
bang-bang western action once the shooting starts and the fun begins.Fuqua has a great eye for action
and proves here once again why he’s one of Hollywood’s most surefire directors of action movies today.Packed
with heroism, villainy and sacrifice, ‘The Magnificent Seven’ stands on its own
well even when compared to the 1960 original, I daresay.Grade: A-

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Edward Snowden.Mention of his very name will either conjure
the image of a despised traitor or a selfless hero in your mind, depending on
your biases and political outlook.It is
also the controversial subject of Oliver Stone’s latest biopic, which covers
not only the pivotal events leading up to the big exposé but also delves into
Snowden’s past and gives us a glimpse into who he is and what makes him tick.

Not having seen Laura Poitra’s
documentary on Snowden, ‘Citizenfour,’ I have the luxury of evaluating
‘Snowden’ on its own merits.Despite his
blatantly liberal outlook, Stone gave us another masterfully crafted film
that’s not only a well-paced and suspenseful nail-biter but also makes us
think.Snowden was part of that new
breed of post-9/11 warriors in the intelligence community which relies more on
brains than brawn, the computer nerds on the front lines of America’s cyber wars
against near-peer adversaries like China and Russia.As he’s immersed deeper into the black world
of America’s cyber-intelligence activities, first with
the CIA and then with the NSA, he becomes increasingly alarmed at the
implications such activities had on our individual privacy and personal freedom.

Through a series of flashbacks, it
is revealing to see how Snowden (Joseph Gordon-Levitt doing a great “method
acting” job here mimicking his voice and mannerisms) gradually transformed from a
conservative patriot whose devotion to Uncle Sam can be characterized as one of
blind faith to a man who made the difficult and fateful decision to betray his own government
by becoming a whistleblower.Shailene Woodley
also turned in a fine performance as his free-spirited love interest and
conscience, Lindsay. While ‘Snowden’ doesn’t
seek to answer all of our burning questions, it is nonetheless a thought-provoking and paranoia-infused
thriller that would be perfectly placed next to Stone’s previous conspiracy-tinged
movie, ‘JFK.'Grade: A-

Monday, September 19, 2016

The remarkable real life drama
behind the “Miracle on the Hudson” when an Airbus A320 passenger jet landed in
the Hudson River is the subject of the latest Tom Hanks biopic.With ‘Sully,’ Hanks has shown once again that
he is peerless when it comes to portraying flesh-and-blood personalities caught
in difficult and trying circumstances while maintaining their dignity and
humanity, as he managed to do in such previous films as ‘Bridge of Spies’ and
‘Captain Phillips.’

While the world has always known
Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger to be a hero for his masterful soft
belly-landing of US Airways Flight 1549 into the calm waters of the Hudson with
no casualties after a catastrophic bird-strike which disabled both engines in
January of 2009, it is perhaps less well known that, behind the scenes, computer modeling and flight simulations conducted during the
subsequent NTSB investigation suggest that he could have diverted the stricken airliner to nearby airfields at LaGuardia
or Teterboro.All the second-guessing
and doubt merely formed the backdrop of director Clint Eastwood’s latest effort,
who kept the movie's focus on Sully himself not simply as a pilot under intense
scrutiny but also as a man and loving father and husband.

Fascinating, insightful and fundamentally
human, ‘Sully’ represents yet another understated triumph for Hanks and
Eastwood.Hanks is fully in his element
as the earnest, caring and humble airline pilot and ex air force “Phantom Phlyer”
while Eastwood turned in what may be his best directorial effort since ‘Million
Dollar Baby.’Not just a tale of one man's vindication, ‘Sully’ is also a portrait of courage under pressure and how making the
right decision in a life-or-death situation over the course of a mere three minutes twenty-eight
seconds can make all the difference to the lives of 155 people.

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

The best film of the year so far
is ‘Hell or High Water,’ director David Mackenzie’s neo-noir contemporary
western based on a screenplay from talented writer/actor Taylor Sheridan, who
previously penned the script of Denis Villeneuve’s excellent drug war thriller
‘Sicario.’A crowd favorite at this
year’s Cannes Film Festival, HOHW is not just your typical run-of-the-mill
heist movie but also a deep social commentary on our troubled times.

Chris Pine and Ben Foster portray
two brothers who become modern day “Butch and Sundance” of sorts as they rob a
series of banks across the Midwest in order to keep their ranch from being
foreclosed by greedy lenders after their irascible mother passed away.Since their bank robbery spree is too trivial
for the FBI to get their hands dirty, soon-to-retire Texas Ranger Marcus
Hamilton (Jeff Bridges) and his half-Injun-half-Mexican partner Alberto (Gil
Birmingham) take on the merry chase to bring them to justice.With the noose tightening around the outlaw
siblings, can they evade the long arm of the law intact?

Evoking Sam
Peckinpah and Clint Eastwood with a dash of Coen brothers, HOHW is a tale of crime and punishment whose
desperados are complex and conflicted anti-heroes whom we can’t help but have some
sympathy with even if they’re bad guys.Bridges is always a pleasure to watch
and provided levity to an otherwise depressing story, but Pine delivered what had to be his
best performance to date while Foster is also memorable as the big brother
who decided that, if he was going to go down in a “blaze of glory” so to speak, he
might as well christen himself Lord of the Plains.Come hell or high water, do yourself a favor
and go see this powerful tour de force of a movie.Grade: A+

‘Morgan’ is the feature directorial
debut of Luke Scott, who has big shoes to fill indeed.As you might have guessed from his last name,
he’s the son of Ridley Scott, director of such films as ‘Blade Runner,’ ‘Alien,
‘Gladiator’ and ‘The Martian’ (true, he also gave us ‘Thelma and Louise’ and
‘Prometheus,’ but we’re all entitled to our duds once in a while aren’t
we?).Having tutored under his famous
dad, Luke is now ready to establish a name for himself in a genre that treated
his father well back when he started.Sci-fi/Horror
is a safe and logical choice, the thinking goes.So how is it that ‘Morgan’ bombed at the box
office with less than $3 million over the past weekend?Because no one watches movies (except yours
truly) over the Labor Day weekend, evidently: http://www.avclub.com/article/weekend-box-office-horror-hits-and-misses-labor-da-242194.

The latest variation on the
familiar sci-fi “Frankenstein” theme we’ve seen in such movies as ‘The
Fly,’ ‘The Hollow Man,’ ‘Splice’ and ‘Ex Machina,’ it didn’t help that ‘Morgan’
has been mercilessly panned by the critics.Nonetheless, I’ve always been a sucker for these science-gone-awry
movies where we know things will go very wrong because of human
short-sightedness and hubris but somehow still can’t look away.'Morgan' is an effective sci-fi/horror
thriller even if it offers nothing new.

Fresh off her fine debut performance
in ‘The VVitch,’ Anya Taylor-Joy is once again mesmerizing and compelling as
the titular Morgan, a bio-engineered “human” with preternatural abilities who became
the subject of an internal investigation by cold and methodical company
“consultant” Lee Weathers (Kate Mara) after a violent episode in which she
stabbed one of her doctors in the eye.Can
the project be salvaged or is it a write-off?We may all know the answer to this question, but seeing how “playing
God” once again leads to our own violent end is as deliciously fun as it ever
was.

Wednesday, August 31, 2016

British man-of-action Jason
Statham returns as Arthur Bishop in the second installment of the rebooted 1972
actioner starring Charles Bronson and Jan–Michael Vincent.One has to ask: “Why does Hollywood feel the
need to remake what is essentially a mediocre movie to begin with?”Then again, if the original source material
is considered weak, our expectations for any reboot attempts will likely be
correspondingly low (see what happens with ‘Ben-Hur’).Brilliant!

While the 2011 film starring
Statham and Ben Foster (in Vincent’s role) was a more-or-less “faithful” remake
of the 1972 original and a moderate success at the box office, ‘Mechanic:
Resurrection’ attempts to kick it into high gear and start a movie franchise a
la’ ‘Mission Impossible’ and ‘Fast and Furious.’Bishop is hunted down and forced out of
retirement by a sinister James Bond-ish British villain to take on three jobs
(assassinations) that must be made to look like “accidents.”So how does one force a badass like Bishop to
do anything against his volition?By
exploiting his weakness for bleeding heart Third World volunteer and
damsel-in-distress Jessica Alba of course.Even I would kill for her.She’s
so hot!

‘Mechanic: Resurrection’ is one
of those macho action B-movies that expects us to ignore its shortcomings -
such as the lack of a believable plot or good acting - on the strength of its
non-stop and thrilling action sequences. In the best (or worst) traditions of 80’s
action movies, it racks up an impressive body count and is best enjoyed the
same way ‘Fast & Furious’ is enjoyed.Don’t overanalyze or question its plausibility and just go along for the
ride.Just roll with it and you might
find it a passable diversion.

Three young thieves bite off more
than they can chew while robbing a blind man in ‘Don’t Breathe,’ Uruguayan
director Fede Alvarez’s latest low budget horror-thriller produced by Sam Raimi.In playing with our
expectations, this twisty little thriller once again proves that the indie
horror genre is stocked with promising talent and is alive and well.

Rocky, Alex and Money are three down-on-their-luck-in-Detroit
delinquents looking for easy money and a quick score,
robbing and vandalizing homes while their occupants are away.When they caught wind that a secluded home
occupied by a blind man (Stephen Lang) could reap them a windfall of $300K, it was too good
to pass up and just the ticket out of their economic hardship.Of course, what should have been an easy
score was anything but as their carefully planned heist turns into a night
of terror.Intrigued?

Tightly plotted, well-paced and
filled with edge-of-your-seat (hold your breath) suspense, ‘Don’t Breathe’ is a
solid sophomore effort by Alvarez, who previously gave us the excellent ‘Evil
Dead’ remake (also produced by Raimi and starring Jane Levy).If you’re looking for something better after a lackluster summer of
disappointments at the box office, you can certainly do worse than checking
this one out.Grade: A

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

The latest semi-biographical
“based on a true story” comedy-drama on the big screen is ‘War Dogs,’
adapted from a Rolling Stone article and later a full-length book entitled “Arms
and the Dudes” by Guy Lawson chronicling the misadventures of two young Jewish
buddies in one of the world’s oldest professions.Hollywood has a pretty decent track record
mining sensational news stories for box office gold, so it should come as
little surprise that the fascinating tale of Efraim Diveroli (Jonah Hill) and David Packouz
(Miles Teller) just begged to be told.

Efraim and David were (they had a
falling out after their arms dealing exploits) best friends from junior high who
re-connected in their early twenties in Miami Beach.David, a certified massage therapist
struggling to make ends meet, was approached by his old pal Efraim after being
out of touch for many years and recruited to work for him in his enterprise.This was back in the day when
the Pentagon was under increasing scrutiny for cronyism in
the wake of Dick Cheney’s company's (Halliburton) profiteering during the
second US invasion of Iraq.Small
businesses suddenly find themselves in a position to vie for government
contracts, and AEY (Efraim’s company) dived in head first.From the highs of gun running through the
Iraqi Triangle delivering Beretta pistols to US troops to the ill-fated
attempt to supply the Afghan army with AK-47 bullets, the movie paints a
vivid and often enlightening portrait of the shady world of arms
dealing and the potential pitfalls of promising more than you can deliver.

Scathingly funny and whip-smart in execution, ‘War
Dogs’ is the latest in a series of true stories adapted into comedy-dramas (or
dramedies) which includes ‘The Big Short,’ ‘The Wolf of Wall Street’ and ‘Pain
and Gain.’Interestingly, they all have
one thing in common: The protagonists in all of these movies are “ordinary”
people who pursue what they believe to be “The American Dream.”In their determination to succeed and to gain
wealth, prestige, the “good life” or whatever it is they’re
after, they lose sight of what is right and spiral toward their ultimate
downfall.As such, these films also
serve as cautionary tales to us all.Grade: A-

You can’t top an Oscar winner
that’s widely regarded to be one of the greatest biblical epics of all time,
but that didn’t stop Paramount Pictures and director Timur Bekmambetov from
bringing the beloved 1959 classic starring Charlton Heston back on the big
screen in their $100 million blockbuster remake of the movie most remembered
for its gripping and brutal chariot race.It doesn’t take the prophet Isaiah to tell us that it’s an ill-advised
undertaking from the very start and whose doom at the box office is
preordained.

The 2016 remake (they can call it
“re-imagining” or “re-interpretation” all they want but it’s still a remake) re-tells
the familiar story of Judah Ben-Hur (Jack Huston), a Jew from a wealthy family
in Jerusalem, and his adoptive brother Messala Severus (Tony Kebbell), a Roman
living under the ignominy of his grandfather being branded a traitor for his
role in Julius Caesar’s assassination.When the latter stomped off to join the Roman army and returned years later to
suppress Jewish rebels in revolt, Judah and his family were implicated in
aiding and abetting the rebels and sold into slavery.Several years later, Judah miraculously
survived his prolonged “death sentence” to seek vengeance against his
once-beloved brother, culminating in a chariot race pitting the two
against each other.Great Hollywood
melodrama, right?

For all its efforts, this unwelcome
2016 remake falls short in matching the storytelling, grandeur and soul of the
original.While competent enough in a
purely technical sense, it nonetheless failed to contribute anything new or
useful other than more contemporary film making techniques and better special
effects.Its only bankable star is
Morgan Freeman as a wealthy trader and businessman, and Jesus was included as
an afterthought only to allow the film its claim to being a “biblical”
movie.And what should have been the
most exhilarating scene of the film, the much anticipated chariot race, seemed
rather anti-climactic and lacked the intensity of the original’s. Overall, this
exercise in futility is a half-baked and lackluster cash grab that deserved all
the rejection it received at the box office during the final weekend of this
summer blockbuster season.Grade: C

Seth Rogen and his long-time
partner-in-crime Evan Goldberg’s latest collaboration is the subversive and
definitely not-for-kids (except in Sweden, apparently) CG-animated
feature ‘Sausage Party.’An adult spin on
the animated classic ‘Toy Story,’ ‘Sausage Party’ envisions a perfect world within
a supermarket where food can talk and interact with one another while waiting to
go to the mythical “Great Beyond.”

Like all the other food in the
supermarket, Frank the wiener (Rogen) and his hot dog bun girlfriend Brenda
(Kristen Wiig) bide their time and yearn for the day when gods (shoppers) purchase and take them to
the Great Beyond, a place they don’t really know but regard as Heaven.Even when a returned jar of traumatized honey
mustard (Danny McBride) warned them that heaven isn’t what they think and is
more akin to hell, they ignore him as the raving lunatic that he was.After a shopping cart mishap foiled Frank
and Brenda’s long awaited turn to the Great Beyond causing disappointment and heartbreak,
they embark on a journey of discovery and enlightenment with a few other
stranded food items to uncover the Truth behind their misguided beliefs
(Surprise! Food gets bloody-murdered and eaten by gods).

So what do you expect from a
movie featuring a wiener, a bun, a taco and a douche (you read right) other than obvious sexual references, double entendres and borderline offensive racial stereotypes?Luckily, SP is more than a series of gag
jokes that pushes the boundaries of propriety and good taste.It is clever, funny, and ultimately uplifting in its message of food
empowerment as they fight back against the “gods” who oppress (and eat) them.There are also some pleasant surprises, like
Edward Norton’s dead-on imitation of Woody Allen as Sammy Bagel Jr. and Salma
Hayek’s "taco," who would more readily accept a bun than a sausage.Grade: B+

Tuesday, August 9, 2016

The DC Extended Universe (DCEU)
branches out from familiar territory (i.e. Superman and Batman) in director
David Ayer’s big screen adaptation of ‘Suicide Squad.’The “Dirty Dozen” or penal legion of comics,
Suicide Squad is a circus freak show of decidedly unhero-like (downright
villainous in fact) meta-human convicts and nutcases sent by the US government
on suicide missions that are too risky or sensitive to accomplish by regular
methods.After the much maligned ‘Man of
Steel’ and ‘Batman V Superman,’ ‘Suicide Squad’ seeks to reverse the negative trend
and provide the DCEU with its first bona-fide critical success.The initial trailer showed promise and
generated a lot of buzz before events crashed and burned in typical DC fashion.

Ayer’s original vision for the
movie was deemed too dark and not light-hearted enough by the studio
execs.We can hardly blame them for
having cold feet; after all, light hearted and fun are what made the MCU so successful
and the studio suits all had a panic attack following the thrashing ‘Batman V
Superman’ took from the critics (Bats and Supes vs. the critics and lost).Scenes were deleted and reshot, and the
result is an unevenly paced and disjointed mess that really shouldn’t come as
much of a surprise and bore little in resemblance to Ayer’s original version.While it isn’t ‘Fantastic Four’ bad, SS
suffers from an underdeveloped and slapdash plot that its characters can’t
quite overcome.Deadshot (Will Smith)
and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) got most of the attention and character
development/backstory via flashbacks.While the latter is interesting and a joy to watch who provided much of
the film’s humor, the former is one-dimensional, a sulking bore whom Ayer
vainly tried to “humanize” with a contrived father-and-daughter relationship
that rings hollow.The other members of
the group (El Diablo, Boomerang, Killer Croc and Rick Flag’s attack dog Katana)
are simply disposable add-ons who happen to tag along, like the unlucky
Slipknot (Adam Beach) who lasted all of one minute into
the mission thanks to Boomerang and his own gullibility.Here’s my final verdict.

The Good: Harley Quinn, whom
Robbie injected with great fun and a chipperness that’s refreshing in an
otherwise dark and dreary movie.Honorable mention should also go to The Joker (Jared Leto) in his
various appearances throughout the movie to rescue her.I can’t believe most of The Joker scenes
ended up on the cutting room floor.Director’s cut anyone?

The Bad: The Enchantress, who
resembles little more than a bad imitation of X-Men’s “Apocalypse” with her quasi-mythological
vibe.Not-so-honorable mention goes to
Viola Davis’ Amanda Waller, the ruthless she-boss of the SS (no pun intended)
who had no qualms about whacking her own staff just because they lacked “proper
clearance.”

The Ugly: While the movie was
purportedly reshot to match the tone of the initial trailer and make it more accessible
to the audience (more “crowd-pleasing”), it ended up being a compromise which
lacked a singular vision stylistically and tonally.And despite all the reshoots and edits, SS
still reminds us of a Zach Snyder movie: dark, rainy and utterly depressing.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Matt Damon reprises his role as the
CIA’s most wanted rogue assassin-turned-fugitive and all-around
don’t-mess-with-me badass Jason Bourne in the self-titled fifth installment of
the alpha male action spy series (the fourth if you discount ‘The Bourne
Legacy,’ which featured a different protagonist played by Jeremy Renner) based
on the popular novels of Robert Ludlum.With Paul Greengrass (‘The Bourne Supremacy’ and ‘The Bourne Ultimatum’)
back in the director’s chair, ‘Jason Bourne’ promises to be another suspense-packed,
exciting and violent chapter in Jason Bourne’s life as well as the sinister and
unaccountable black program that spawned him and those like him in the name of safeguarding
our “national security.”

It’s been 14 years since Doug
Liman’s ‘The Bourne Identity,’ which begs the oft-used sports question: “Does
Bourne have any gas left in the tank? “Worry not Bourne fans, the ex-Assassin with amnesia is still as kick-ass as
ever as he proved in the movie’s opening scene, making a living “off
the grid” by competing in anonymous fight clubs beating down other alpha males
in a primeval contest of who’s King of the friggin' Jungle.Alas, he gets pulled back into the spy-vs-spy world he hoped he left
behind for good when ex-CIA operative Nicky Parsons (Julia Stiles) from ‘The
Bourne Ultimatum’ uncovered the resurrection of Treadstone/Blackbriar and needed
her ass saved, I mean, his help.

JB is similar to all the previous
installments (including ‘The Bourne Legacy’) in one important aspect: it is essentially
a chase movie at heart.Once again, top
CIA movers-and-shakers mark this “one man army” for immediate termination and send wet work specialists to do the job, only
to epically fail in the attempt.The players
may change but the result remains the same.This time, the governmental villains are Tommy Lee Jones as an
unscrupulous old-school CIA director spouting the usual "the ends justify the means" bullshit, the lovely Alicia Vikander as a rising
young star in the CIA who “volunteered” to help capture or kill Bourne and Vincent Cassel
as the “Asset,” a Blackbriar operative who had a personal score to settle with
Bourne and wanted him dead 10 times over.Despite its familiarity to the
other Bourne movies, I can’t help but give this latest entry top marks because
it managed to be another gritty hard-hitting thriller in which there’s never a
dull moment.Besides, I love the
chaotic close-up shifty-cam jumpy quick-cut action sequences that have become a
mainstay of the Bourne series.Seriously.Grade: A

In our age of social media, live networks
and the "Pokémon Go" craze, a movie like ‘Nerve’ comes across as both relevant
and timely indeed.Co-directors Henry
Joost and Ariel Schulman, whose 2010 debut 'Catfish' was equally a reflection
of our times and was so influential and eye-opening that it gave new meaning to
the word, hit the target once again with
this gripping online reality game show thriller starring Emma Roberts, Dave
Franco and Juliette Lewis.

‘Nerve’ is a "high-concept"
movie about NY high-schooler and all-around good girl Vee Delmonico (Roberts,
who turned out to be a decent young actress despite her famous aunt Julia), who’s
regarded by her more spontaneous and adventurous best friend to be “boring” due to her
laid-back, tame and risk-averse style.At the urging from the friend, she got involved (reluctantly of course)
in a shady online dare game called “Nerve” in which she was prompted to
complete a series of increasingly high-stakes, risky and embarrassing
challenges for cash reward.With the
help of a handsome young stranger (Franco, making a name for himself despite
his more accomplished big brother James) who seemingly shares her own
interests, how can she resist the potential romance?But as in all such undertakings, the more she
plays the deeper she sinks and the more things spiral out of control.

Like David Fincher’s 1997 movie
‘The Game,’ ‘Nerve’ is admittedly far-fetched and requires us to suspend our disbelief and keep our natural
skepticism in check.Luckily, this isn’t overly difficult to pull off because ‘Nerve’ is a fascinating
thrill-ride with a nice twist in its final act.Roberts and Franco possess great chemistry, propelling an otherwise
unbelievable story along on the strengths of their charisma and personalities.While ‘Nerve’ may not be wholly original (it
owes its spirit to the Fincher film mentioned above), we still can’t help
but become the vicarious “watchers” in the movie when all is said and done.

Monday, July 25, 2016

From watching the chic young
‘90210’ cast of J.J. Abrams’ rebooted Star Trek movie franchise, it’s hard to
fathom that Gene Roddenberry’s venerable sci-fi space opera just turned 50 this
year.Then again, it’s equally hard to imagine
that ‘Star Trek: The Original Series’ (TOS) was axed by NBC back in 1969 after just three
seasons as a result of dismal ratings, only to become a big hit in syndication
and remain one of the most enduring cultural phenomena of our time with legions of fans called Trekkies (I
mean “Trekkers”) five decades later.

‘Star Trek Beyond’ is the third
entry in the new ST cinematic universe (to borrow Marvel’s terminology) and is
the first not directed by J.J. Abrams who, in an act of betrayal worthy of Kylo Ren himself, took
on a certain other space opera project and stayed on only as producer this time
around.Holy Benedict Arnold,
Batman!Filling in
is Taiwanese director Justin Lin, who’s everything Ang Lee isn’t and whom I regard as the Chinese answer to Michael Bay. For those unfamiliar, Lin is the guy responsible for pulling 'Fast & Furious' out of straight-to-DVD obscurity and making it into one of the most inexplicably lucrative film franchises in recent memory. Lin brought his fast-and-furious style to this
latest installment, making ‘Star Trek Beyond’ the most fast-paced and
jam-packed-with-nonstop-action ST movie we’ve seen yet.Case in point, while it took Abrams most of
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ just to damage the Enterprise, it only took Lin the
first half hour or so to totally obliterate the iconic starship at the hands
of the movie’s baddie, a villain by the name of General Krall (Idris Elba).

In spite of its cinematic excess, ‘Star
Trek Beyond’ managed to be another solid addition to the ST
franchise, providing viewers with a fun and action-packed deep space adventure yarn in
the grand tradition of popcorn movies.Filled with individual exploits of derring-do, dastardly villainy and a colorful cast of
characters (including the feisty alien heroine played by Sofia Boutella shown below), it is an immensely satisfying thrill ride worth taking
not just for the diehard Trekkers but for anyone who simply enjoys a good
sci-fi/action flick.

Good horror movies are hard to
come by nowadays largely due to their susceptibility to sequel-itis and
tendency to follow the same tired formulas, but in light of their popularity
with young moviegoers looking for a good fright and favorable
return-on-investment they are often a lucrative and safe bet.While Hollywood will never stop swinging for
the all-or-nothing home runs by making blockbuster tent-poles costing hundreds
of millions in the vain hopes of recouping three times the films’
budgets at the box office, producers of horror films have discovered their own little secret: that
settling for hitting singles often isn't such a bad deal.First-time director David Sandberg’s new
supernatural horror movie, ‘Lights Out,’ is the latest example of this limited approach.
With a mere budget of $5 million, it has already grossed nearly $30 million
worldwide.Even if it drops
substantially over its second weekend and disappears from theaters
by week 3, the movie will be considered an unqualified success.

‘Lights Out’ (co-produced by
James Wan) is a PG-13 rated supernatural thriller about a family terrorized by
a malevolent entity that takes form in the darkness.It is quite an intriguing – if unoriginal – hook.But good horror movies can’t simply rely on
gimmicks and must immerse us in the story and make us care about the
characters. ‘Lights Out’ delivers in
this regard.As with most James Wan
movies (either as director or producer), the film centers around a small group of
people whom the audience gains sympathy with in their worsening predicament, in
this case a young woman named Rebecca (Teresa Palmer) and her little brother
Martin (Gabriel Martin), who lives with his deranged mother Sophie (Maria
Bello) and an entity of pure and unadulterated evil named Diana.

‘Lights Out’ is an effective
little chiller due to its simplicity and sparseness.From its nightmarishly creepy opening scene
inside a mannequin factory to its final act, the movie’s scary moments are well
parsed out for maximum impact without overdoing it and thereby rendering us
immune, like many horror movies couldn’t resist doing.Likewise, the performances by its cast of
relative unknowns are subtle and understated yet no less powerful, driving the
story briskly along and making us true “believers” in its outlandish supernatural
premise.

Monday, July 18, 2016

Ivan Reitman’s 1984 supernatural
comedy ‘Ghostbusters’ gets a shot of estrogen in actor/director Paul Feig’s 2016
reboot.Paul Feig (‘Bridesmaids,’ ‘Heat’
and ‘Spy’) is best known for collaborating with A-list comedic actress Melissa
McCarthy, who’s one of the four Ghostbusters in this update, but did you know
that he also created the short-lived coming-of-age cult comedy series ‘Freaks
and Geeks’ produced by Judd Apatow?
Didn't think so. Bringing back ‘Ghostbusters’ is no mean feat for the director, because
he has to walk a fine line between attracting a new generation of viewers while
not straying too far from the original and alienating fans of the 1984 classic.

Like the ‘Ghostbusters’ of auld with
Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd, thenew
‘Ghostbusters’ leans heavily on SNL with ¾ of its team comprised of
current or recent SNL cast members in Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones,
with the fourth being McCarthy who’s hosted SNL quite a few times.Even more than the original, the all-female
Ghostbusters are nerdy science types who would fit right in on ‘Big Bang
Theory’; Wiig as a straight-laced and socially awkward physics professor, McCarthy as a PhD outcast weird
science paranormal investigator, and McKinnon’s Dr. Jillian
Holtzmann is a tomboyish and gay mad engineer whose madcap experiments would
give Christopher Lloyd’s Dr. Emmet Brown a decent run for his money.The lone holdout of the geek club is Leslie
Jones’s Patty, who makes up for her lack of science smarts with her
street smarts and like-the-back-of-her-hand knowledge of NYC.Aussie actor Chris Hemsworth (‘Thor’)
proves that he has comedic chops as the Ghostbuster’s hunky male receptionist/secretary
Kevin, who’s kept on for his looks despite being dumb as a bag of hammers in a
classic example of gender role reversal.

‘Ghostbusters 2016’ is a fun if
somewhat familiar exercise in 1980’s nostalgia.
Paying homage and staying true to the spirit of the original, the film is a respectful
reboot and featured cameos from the original cast including Bill Murray,
Sigourney Weaver, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson (sadly, Harold Ramis passed away in
2014) and Slimer the ectoplasm-spewing ghost.The four female leads were all game and did justice to the Ghostbusters
franchise, demonstrating that they can walk the walk as well as talk the
pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo.